Metal Sonic! My Speculated Origin (Relies on level backgrounds)

So I was replaying Sonic CD and doing my typical good ending run via roboticizers, when I noticed something. Actually two somethings. The Bad Future of Metallic Madness and the Bad Future of Wacky Workbench have the same color scheme. They share the same rusted red coloring scheme. I also noticed something that in both the pasts of Quartz Quadrant and Wacky Workbench. If you look in the background of the  past of Quartz Quadrant, you can see rock structures. (I recommend standing on some of the wooden platforms to see them.) Then I saw the same rock structures in the past of Wacky Workbench, leading me to believe that the two are close together. (I also saw city elements in the background of past Metallic Madness connecting it to Stardust Speedway.). I also know that Stardust Speedway and the race with Metal Sonic was supposed to be the last level and boss fight. (look at the ending animation) This means that the fourth, fifth, and sixth levels were Quartz Quadrant, Wacky Workbench, and Metallic Madness.

Now, I can’t decide about level order. But in order to fit with my original level order theory (stemming from the missing R2), ( Metallic Madness was R4 and got moved to R8 while Tidal Tempest got moved from R2 to R4 (good ending animation)). The last four levels would go Metallic Madness (R4), Quartz Quadrant (R5 — Final Slot) , Wacky Workbench (R6 — Final Slot), and Stardust Speedway. (R7 — Final Slot).  However, Quadrant means “Fourth”. Q.Q. would be the fifth level, maybe that’s why Metallic Madness got moved, to keep the pun. 

However, something interesting occurred to me. Let’s say Sonic goes through Metallic Madness, Quartz Quadrant, and Wacky Workbench through three consecutive levels before Stardust Speedway. Further evidence shows the connections between these levels, in Wacky Workbench you can see all sorts of buzzsaws in the background. Buzzsaws actually show up as obstacles in Metallic Madness. Let’s look at the levels, Quartz Quadrant is meant to be a mine. Metallic Madness as the final level is supposed to Eggman’s base. I’ve seen Wacky Workbench induce a lot of frustration both from its level design (which requires a lot of patience) and just the question of why it even existed. Well, Wacky Workbench indicates a sort of factory.

Let’s look at what Metal Sonic is made out of. He’s made out of metal, obvious, right? Well, where do you get metal? You mine it. What is Quartz Quadrant? A Mine. The name of Metallic Madness may be more indication using alliteration that it’s a factory where Sonic goes through a lot of obstacles made out of metal. Well, Metallic Madness could be a processing plant, which would be Wacky Workbench the workshop where Eggman uses the metal to craft the robots for Little Planet. In other words, the three levels before Stardust Speedway where we finally face Metal Sonic are meant to show where Metal Sonic may have been created. Metal Sonic is sure to have high-tech computers, and those take metal, valuable metal.

I’ll even take it a step further with my reasoning why Tidal Tempest was originally R2 and why it might have been changed to R4. The first level is Palmtree Panic. If you’re in the Present when you finish the level, Amy Rose appears and hugs Sonic. The next level, Collision Chaos (R3) is where Metal Sonic kidnaps Amy.  So the level design could have been set up to show Metal Sonic kidnapping Amy, and then the next levels would have shown the origin of Metal Sonic himself before leading up to the final conflict. Why Tidal Tempest might have been switched to R4 is a simpler reason. There was no way to have Amy Rose meet Sonic at the end of Palmtree Panic, and then accompany him throughout Tidal Tempest, so she could get kidnapped in Collision Chaos. (incidentally another small pun, C is the third level of the alphabet, and it might have been the third level in the game.) And they’re not going to put Tidal Tempest BEFORE Palmtree Panic.

There’s one more curiosity. In Episode Metal (which takes place between Sonic 4: Episode 1 and Episode 2), Metal Sonic gets a power source in Lost Labyrinth Zone. Now given the fact that SEGA has a tendency to re-use scrapped ideas (Sonic Adventure 2 was originally supposed to use a choice system that got put into Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sandopolis, Lava Reef, and Ice Cap are used in Sonic 3 & Knuckles (and Sonic Adventure, though Lava Reef now goes under “Red Mountain”) after Sonic 2 scrapped levels with exactly those themes), perhaps the intention was that Metal Sonic got some sort of power from within the ruins of Tidal Tempest. It would explain why SEGA was tagging Sonic 4 as a continuation of the classic games despite core gameplay elements being changed from Sonic 3 & Knuckles to Sonic 4: Episode 1. (Physics).  Not to mention SEGA was saying Sonic CD tied into the Sonic 4 saga. Of note, all four levels in Sonic 4: Episode 1 tie into Sonic CD. Splash Hill to Palmtree Panic. Casino Street to Collision Chaos and Stardust Speedway. Mad Gear to Wacky Workbench and Metallic Madness and Quartz Quadrant. (those three levels again!) And Lost Labyrinth to Tidal Tempest. Not to mention, you’re given many different ways to play the Sonic 4 Saga (essentially, after you beat the first level, you can choose which act of which level you can go to next.) Unlike most classic Sonic games, Sonic CD gave you a wide variety of ways to play it. You can play it like Sonic 1, speed through it, collect fifty rings and go for a Time Stone/Chaos Emerald, or you could slow down and go the Past or Future. (Good Future and Bad Future share 99% of their level designs.) 

There’s one more caveat. Metallic Madness. Look at the name. Metallic Madness. Strangely, in gameplay, it’s the only level that completely lacks Metal Sonic in any shape or form. It has no Metal Sonic projectors (because you’ve already beaten him in Stardust Speedway). The name indicates something, an idea, that was once there, but got thrown out before the final cut because of other necessities.

Look, Sonic 2 and Sonic CD were supposed to be one game. (Wood Zone was supposed to be a past zone of Metropolis. The closest Wood Zone ever got to appearing in any Sonic Game was as the level art for Quartz Quadrant past.)  Now look at Metropolis, it starts with M like Metallic Madness, but it indicates a city like Stardust Speedway. (Not to mention, the next level was supposed to be one act known as Genocide City, later Cyber City.) So in essence, take all the ideas that got thrown out for Sonic’s sequel. Either they ended up in Sonic 2, they ended up in Sonic CD, they were delayed until Sonic 3 & Knuckles, they appeared in multiple options. (Robot Sonic) Sonic CD takes place on Little Planet. Sonic 2 has Eggman trying to create the Death Egg to take over the planet. Death Egg even has Silver Sonic, another robotic Sonic. Tails was supposed to be a girl, before being changed to a boy, and appears in multiple Easter Eggs in Sonic CD.